Tulsi Gabbard Fires Officials After Assessment Finds Trump's Tren De Aragua Claims False
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard fired two senior officials at the National Intelligence Council after it released a report concluding the Venezuelan government is unlikely to be directing the activities of Tren de Aragua, in sharp contrast to President Donald Trump's countless claims to the contrary.
Trump has repeatedly asserted, while offering no evidence, that Venezuela is somehow guiding the actions of the street gang. Trump also invoked Tren de Aragua to justify invoking the Alien Enemies Act shortly after taking office, leaning on the 1798 law to deport people without due process.
Michael Collins, the acting chair of the National Intelligence Council, and deputy Maria Langan-Riekhof were fired Tuesday, a source told CNN. It's unclear what role, if any, Collins and Langan-Riekhof played in producing the analysis.
The firings come a week after an intelligence assessment produced by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence found Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's government probably isn't involved in Tren de Aragua's operations in the U.S.
The existence of that partially declassified assessment was first reported by The Washington Post.
An unnamed senior Trump official spun the firings to Fox News as an effort to block the "politicization of intelligence." But their intent is clearly the opposite, Jonathan Panikoff, the former deputy national intelligence officer for the Near East, wrote on X.
"Having spent five years working at the NIC, I can personally attest the org is the heartbeat of apolitical US all-source analysis, traditionally drawing the best of the IC's analysts together to tackle and produce assessments on the hardest issues," he said.
"Anything that reduces its independence because policymakers don't like the independent conclusions it reaches, is the definition of politicization they are decrying," he added. "Mike and Maria are unbelievable leaders and IC professionals, not political actors."
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This reminds of when Trump fired the woman who was the US ambassador to Ukraine because she didnt fall in behind Trump and Rudys lies about what was going on over there.
ichael Collins, the acting chair of the National Intelligence Council, and deputy Maria Langan-Riekhof were fired Tuesday, a source told CNN. It's unclear what role, if any, Collins and Langan-Riekhof played in producing the analysis.
Great story.
That makes the firings worse, not better.
Can't have anyone doing analysis and producing hard facts
Did you feel the same about DOGE and the shitstorm the left raised?
can't have anyone contradicting the maga bag of shit stinking up the oval office ...
Together the fired couple had 40+ years experience, Tulsi has what, 3 months?
The shitstorm is being created by DOGE. The claim that DOGE has anything to do with government efficiency is FAKE.
Only reactionaries would claim that identifying fraud, waste and abuse as fake, but only when that fraud, waste and abuse benefits their side hustles.
Just what did Michael Collins, the acting chair of the National Intelligence Council, and deputy Maria Langan-Riekhof do other than provide an assessment and since when did any such assessment need to please the executive rather than to inform them?
That is exactly how reactionaries like Trump, Musk, Vance behave, except in this case Trump and his reactionary followers are pretending like DOGE is real.
but, but, but what about ...
You know trump's new shiny plane is going to cost taxpayers 1.5 BILLION dollars to retrofit, right?
Not sure how much, but it seems it will cost more to prepare for service than its current value.
I'm liking the odds of a total clusterfuck more and more ...
So now our NIC is ball less
let maga swing the pendulum as far to the right as they can, it's return trip will have them howling for mercy in the future ...
and oh do they deserve NONE